Thursday, April 12, 2012

The Weekend of Defragging, De-cluttering, Revamping and Recycling

The Easter weekend was a welcome oasis of family togetherness... mostly because the smallest member of the family had a tummy bug and we were confined to the house, but I'm embracing positives here. 

Instead of visiting extended family on Sunday, I used the time to work a lot on the dress instructions, and in between, I indulged in a bit of zen....
The knitting machine was brought into the loungeroom and the knitting of long rectangles served as a defragging utility for my overstuffed and unsorted brain. 

Two strands of super-fine cotton (or possibly rayon..?) yarn (origin unknown... possibly ex Fibre Red..?) knitted up into the scrunchiest, rolliest rectangle... which wasn't the (flatter, wider) plan, but I'm looking forward to making it into something wonderful.
 A single ball of Bendigo Highlands yarn, knitted on every second needle, made a lovely little shrug (basically a scarf with a few inches sewn together at the back).
By Monday, the girleen was more herself and was able to get knitting.  She was like my own little knitting machine motor... I just did the cast-on,cast-off and supervising.  We both moved the weights and she had the hang of when the weights needed to be moved by the time we were halfway through.

 We made this from a mystery-ball from Auntie Wilma's yarn stash.  It's very soft (possibly has a bit of angora or cashmere....?) and was an absolute dream to wear on a very chilly Tuesday.
Again, It's just a long scarf shape, wrapped and joined at the back.
 And then I thought seriously about how many clothes I need....

A little idea to crochet a rag rug with a few old cotton-lycra tops has since become a bit of an obsession.
 Anything that isn't absolutely loved or absolutely new is being gobbled up into this wonky, unevenly-cut and randomly hooked beastie. 

I. AM. DECUTTERING. MY. WARDROBE.

Who'd a thunk it...?

And yes.. I'm a little embarrassed that I had so many cotton-lycra tops to spare....

We're all loving it.  Even the man of the house has seen the potential for a LARGE rug, and is bemoaning the fact that he threw out all his old t-shirts last week.

And we can't keep the wee girl off it. It's so dig-your-toes-in textural and squidgey. 
(I must have a word to her about yellow nail polish on toes looking like a fungal infection...)

So I'm feeling a bit good about all things wardrobey at the moment, and my thoughts have had time to fall into place in the process.

I'm also feeling a bit excited about the motherload of knit fabrics I bought a little while ago, the new book I have, and the fact that my weekend at Sewjourn is only a month away....

12 comments:

Cathie said...

ahhh, that word.."decluttering"! must do that someday.
loving the rug & your shrugs, especially that blue one.
sending you hugs lovely Nikki ♥

Leonie said...

What a fab load of stuff. (you really look like Pauline in the photos).

A Peppermint Penguin said...

glad you mentioned the nail polish, I did wonder for a minute ;-)

I got to the tricky bits of neck and shoulder shaping on my cardigan yesterday and spent a long time crossing numbers off pieces of paper and tinking!

The inherent difficulty of the fitted versus the wrapped.

Ms T said...

Must have been the weekend for machine knitting. I got out my knitting machine from the very back of the cupboard and knit a scarf for my daughter. I came out so long because I rolled it up as I went and didn't really keep track of how long it was. Oh well she loves it. I forgot how quick machine knitting is.

Sue said...

My Mum had a knitting machine when I was young and I am so sorry it is no longer in the family. I think I will need to start looking for one. I have been bitten by the same 'crochet your old t-shirts into a rug' bug! However I am relying on teenage son's tees and they are mainly grey and black, so not quite so colourful!

trudi@maudeandme said...

Loving all those knits. The scarfs come shrugs are brilliant!

Anonymous said...

I love the shrug! I hope the little one is better ! That's a bummer he was sick on Easter :(

Fer said...

Everytime you mention that knitting machine of yours (and show photos of the scrummy results), I want to race out and buy my own machine. Thankfully reality kicks in just in time, but one day.... one day....

Loving the rag rug too! Maybe I'll just have to convince the husband to part with those daggy old t-shirts after all!

Katy Cameron said...

Heh, love the idea of knitting machine therapy, and you certainly produced some fab things from it. Totally with you on that nail polish though... ;o)

Karen said...

Love the rug.....what size is the hook? I live in the Philippines, so I generally donate all my old T-shirts to needy families (off which there are much too many here) so would feel rather guilty about cutting up still wearable T-shirts. But I do have tons of scrap fabrics.....

Nikki said...

The hook is a 20mm one...yep, nearly an inch diameter. Another treasure from my dear Auntie Wilma's stash.

62cherry said...

love the knitting bug
yeah yellow nailpolish is a no no!
enjoy your trip to sewjourn , not too long to go xo